Bulletin #728
Subject
:
Monday mourning . . . .
19 December 2016
Grenoble, France
Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
The 538 members of the US Electoral College will meet at their home state legislatures today to vote on who will be the next President of the United States. The EC is made up of 50 groups of voters (one group for each of the 50 states in the US), each representing the total number of federal lawmakers from their state. (Thus Oklahoma, which is represented in Washington, D.C. with 2 Senators and 5 Representatives, will have a total of 7 electoral college votes today in Oklahoma City; while the state of California, which sends 2 Senators and 53 Representatives to Congress, will cast a total of 55 electoral college votes in Sacramento today. The electoral college traditionally operates under a ‘winner-takes-all’ rule, and most state delegates are expected to vote for the presidential candidate who won the majority of popular votes that were counted on November 8th in their state. The winner of today’s Electoral College vote must receive at least 270 votes today.
The Executive Branch of the Federal
Government is split over who should be chosen by the Electoral College today as
the next President of the United States. Here we see the ruling class divided
over their specific self-interests and an internecine war is about to break
out, unless it can be contained by compromises between the two ruling-class factions
who are now polarized over the America’s longest war.
Social class struggle will not
disappear, but the political split within the ruling class in the US is likely to produce
a prolonged fight over which faction will control the driver’s seat in the coming years, and shifting class alliances are likely to occur.
Readers beware : 'when elephants
fight only the grass gets trampled.'
We see in modern history what can happen when a ruling class is divided, as it was in France following the humiliating military defeat of French troops at the end of the Second Empire. The Paris Commune (March 18 - May 28, 1871) stands out as a grim reminder of the fury of the ruling class when it seeks to reconsolidate itself in order to ward off greater capital losses in the throes of social revolution.
Below, Andrew Feinstein discusses the corrupt weapons deal in post-apartheid South Africa and how this sparked his quest to uncover the world of war profiteers and weapons contractors. It is a description of international capitalism and the class alliances which make it possible.
The 5 items below will inform
CEIMSA readers on this eve of a new presidency in the US. We can see, as class struggle
escalates, tactics will change to accommodate new needs to secure labor
exploitation and to assure maximum profits for corporate investors. The
collateral damages must be redefined periodically to justify these tactical
modifications; among
these malleable tactics are the presidential elections.
Sincerely,
Francis Feeley
Professor emeritus of
American Studies
University
Grenoble-Alpes
Director of Research
University of
Paris-Nanterre
Center for the Advanced
Study of American Institutions and Social Movements
The University of
California-San Diego
a.
In
Case You Missed It
The Plan is
for the United States to Rule the World
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1544.htm
by David Armstrong
===========
b.
A CIA-led Coup Against
American Democracy Is Unfolding Before Our Eyes
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46062.htm
by Paul Craig Roberts
===========
c.
A Spy Coup in The USA
(Who is governing America?)
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/12/18/a-spy-coup-in-america/
As the Electoral
College assembles, U.S. intelligence agencies are stepping up a campaign to
delegitimize Donald Trump as a Russian stooge, raising concerns about a spy
coup in America.
by Robert Parry
===========
d.
Trump's
Realignment with Putin's Russia
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=17928
Leo Panitch and Paul Jay discuss how Trump's admiration for
Putin's authoritarianism and his close alliances with capitalist oligarchs
leads away from neoliberal international rule-making and towards crude
deal-making
===========
e.
WikiLeaks Figure
Says ‘Disgusted’ Democrat Leaked Clinton Campaign Emails
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/14/craig-murray-says-source-of-hillary-clinton-campai/
by Dave Boyer
===========